


The Type of Woman You Go to War Beside

by icandrawamoth



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Pre-Relationship, Teasing, Tumblr Prompt, not as angsty as it sounds - I think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 20:56:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14656083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: Five glimpses into a world where Iella and Mirax are members of Rogue Squadron...





	The Type of Woman You Go to War Beside

**Author's Note:**

> Wraithtwelve on Tumblr asked for "Mirax and Iella are a part of Rogue Squadron" for the five times fic meme. Title from [this quote](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/62/11/fe/6211fe0c9b7d4e11915810b095391ff1.jpg).

i.

“ _You're good, Corran, but you're no Luke Skywalker,_ ” Corran fumes. “That's what Antilles said to me after the last sim run!”

Iella looks up from her datapad where she's reviewing the analysis of her own results. “He's not wrong, though, right?” she reasons. “Of course you're good or you wouldn't even be under consideration for the Rogues. But Skywalker destroyed a Death Star with one shot. He's a Jedi. Not even Wedge Antilles is that good.”

Corran grinds his teeth. “Yeah, I know, but...”

Iella chuckles. “Hearing it said out loud sucks.”

“Yeah.” Corran sighs – then suddenly winces and looks over at her. “Hell, I didn't even ask what he said to you.”

Iella smiles sweetly and waves the datapad. “Only good things. He's impressed by how well Mirax and I are working together having only just met.”

Corran takes the datapad and scans the file himself, eyes widening as he goes. “Hey, your final score is higher than mine!”

Iella makes a face. She'd be offended if she didn't know him well enough from their years together in CorSec to know what he really means. “If I'm going to out there watching your back, I'd better be good.”

“Looks like you are.” He grins up at her. “Antilles would be a fool not to choose both of us for the squadron.”

 

ii.

When Corran's Headhunter hit the building, the entire thing collapsed, a mound of duracrete and transparisteel standing tall as a gravesite. Clean-up operations have already started, and though there's not much they can do, Iella and Mirax spend all their spare time here.

It feels like the least they can do, to be here in the last place where Corran Horn was alive. If there's even the tiniest chance that he may have survived, that he may surface bruised and broken yet still with them-

But Iella can't let herself think that. False hope is even more painful than grief. She's lost a long-time friend and partner, and the ache in her heart is nearly overwhelming, but when she looks at Mirax...

Her wingmate and Corran had barely gotten started, had only agreed to actually start a relationship when this mission was over. Iella had clearly seen from the moment they met how good they might be for each other, and now that future has been ripped away from them. The New Republic has gained such an important victory in the capture of Coruscant, but at how high a personal cost?

And then there's the fact that Captain Celchu has been blamed. Iella doesn't want to believe it. She doesn't want to even consider that a member of her squadron, a close personal friend of Commander Antilles, could betray everything like this. But what General Cracken says is true: the man had means, motive, and opportunity. It was possible, and that's all they need to take him to trial.

“Mirax?”

Mirax looks up from where she's been watching an earthmover scoop gigantic piles of shattered debris from the crash site. “Hmm?” She doesn't sound like she's really listening.

Iella lays a hand on her arm, trying to really gain her attention. “About Captain Celchu's trial. We know Nawara will be his defense...”

“Yes. And?”

“Well, since I had experience with CorSec, Cracken has asked me to assist with the prosecution.”

Mirax blinks slowly as if it's taking time for the information to sink in. “You really think he did it? You think after everything...”

Iella spreads her hands. “I don't know, but that's the point of a trial. It's possible. And apparently Cracken doesn't consider me being a Rogue a conflict of interest; he believes I can be impartial. So do I. I can help get to the bottom of this, either way.”

After a moment, Mirax nods, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “I trust you, Iella.”

 

iii.

Iella wants to go home. Even just for awhile, she wants to be done. No more grief, no more flying, no more pressure. Just rest.

But none of that is possible. Instead, she spends as much time as she can in the Corellian Sanctuary. The diamond remains of her fellow homeless Corellians sparkle around her where they're embedded into the walls and ceiling of the small domed building, but with tear-stained eyes so often buried in her hands, she doesn't see them. When she can manage to look up, it's only to see the tiny, bright stone that is all that remains of her husband.

Today she's standing by the wall, fingers tracing the diamond, remembering. Diric's soft laugh, thew way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, the warmth of his embrace. He was nothing like this hard, cold stone, no matter how objectively beautiful it may be. For an instant, grief turns to bitterness, and she raises a hand to strike-

“Iella?”

The quiet voice cuts the silence of the Sanctuary like a vibroblade. Corran visits often, as does Mirax, and even Wedge has dropped by a few times, but this isn't someone she'd expected to see here.

She takes a step and sinks down into a seat, and a moment later, Tycho Celchu is beside her. “Am I intruding?” he asks softly.

Iella shakes her head and forces herself to look up at him, sees a face creased in concern, pale blue eyes shuttered. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

Tycho looks away, and Iella is distracted momentarily from her pain by the way his hands scrub nervously across his thighs. “I wanted to apologize. I should've done it sooner.”

“Apologize?” Iella echoes, lost.

Tycho nods. “What happened to Diric...I keep thinking I could have prevented it. If I'd worked harder when I was in Lusankya myself, escaped sooner, remembered more. I could have led the New Republic right to Isard's door and stopped it before all this madness happened.”

Iella shakes her head even as she lets herself imagine it. A world where Diric was never taken from her, never twisted by the machinations of a madwoman... “This isn't your fault,” she manages.

“It could have been me,” Tycho goes on, the smallest tremor in his voice. “I don't know why it wasn't. I could've been the one she commanded to hurt people I love, destroyed things I'd worked so hard for. I don't understand...” He makes a sudden, shaky little sound and rubs a hand over his face. “I don't know what I'm doing here,” he admits. “I'm not trying to make this about me. I just...I don't know. This isn't helping you at all.”

He makes to stand, and Iella grabs his arm. “Hey. It's all right.” She takes a deep, shuddering breath herself. “I wonder what it was like, you know?” she says quietly. “Part of me doesn't ever want to know what Isard did to him to make him that way, but...I wonder, and sometimes that's worse.”

“I could tell you what I remember from my time there, which isn't much, but I don't know if it would help like you think.”

“Probably not.”

Silence, not exactly uncomfortable, stretches between them for awhile until Iella finally ventures, “I am glad you're here. I thought you might not want to see me after...after my part in your trial.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him turn to look at her again but doesn't meet his gaze. “Why?” he asks plainly.

“I took the side against you, my squadmate and an ultimately innocent man. Even after everything Diric and Wedge and everyone else said.”

Tycho shakes his head. “You were honest and fair. There was a lot pointing to my guilt, and it would have been foolish to ignore it. You did a job that needed to be done. Justice was served in the end, so there's no need to hold a grudge.”

Iella's lip twitches just slightly – probably the closest to a smile she's come since she last held Diric in her arms. “Do you ever get angry, Captain?”

“Anger rarely helps with anything,” he says enigmatically.

“I suppose.”

Tycho touches her shoulder then pulls himself to his feet and holds out a hand. “Should we go?” he asks kindly. “Corran said you've been here all day; we could get something to eat?”

Iella hesitates, but in the end she supposes she can't stay here grieving forever. She allows herself to nod. “Sure.” She takes his hand, lets him help her to her feet. “Thank you, Captain.”

 

iv.

Iella stays in the hanger long after the rest of the Rogues have dispersed, watching the space in the sky where Wedge's X-wing had disappeared.

“Lieutenant Wessiri,” comes an amused voice from behind her, “why so glum?”

Iella turns, making a face when she sees it's her wingmate who's reappeared at her side. “It's just going to be different without him, that's all. It doesn't quite feel like the Rogues anymore.”

“Tycho can lead us just as well as Wedge,” Mirax reasons. There's a dangerous type of grin playing around the edges of her lips. “Are you sure that's it?”

“I worry,” Iella goes on. “If he's constructing a squadron from what are essentially screw-ups, that's going to be dangerous. What if something happens to him?”

Mirax raises an eyebrow. “This is Wedge Antilles we're talking about.”

“I _know_ , but he's not invincible. If one of those other pilots-”

“So are you going to admit that you like him, or are we going to keep having this pointless conversation all day?” Mirax interrupts matter-of-factly.

Iella's cheeks flame. “I-”

“'Am not about to lie to my wingmate and one of my best friends'?” Mirax suggests.

Iella bites her lip. “Fine.”

“Fine?” Mirax's grin blossoms in full. “You haven't told him, have you? Iella-”

“I don't want you to do anything...rash,” Iella says, waving her hands in an attempt to get her to calm down.

“Oh, I don't know about rash. You guys have been dancing around each other for how long now?” Mirax's voice goes a little gentler. “Since before Diric came back?”

Iella looks away for a moment. Mirax isn't wrong. Back when she'd first met Wedge, when she'd started to let herself believe Diric wasn't coming back from wherever he'd disappeared to...there had been something there, something she knew wasn't just her. But then Diric _had_ returned, and all that had turned to guilt quickly shoved under the carpet. Then...well.

“But now you're ready to move on,” Mirax says encouragingly, reading her thoughts like the perfect wingmate she is. “That's okay, Iella. We've been close friends since we were kids; I can talk to him for you. I can help!”

Iella grimaces. “I appreciate that, Mirax, I really do, but if you'd let us go at our own pace on this, I would appreciate that even more.”

“Okay, okay.” Mirax holds her hands up in surrender. “Just know I'm rooting for you guys, though. And try not to worry so much. Wedge is a big boy; he'll be fine.”

 

v.

As soon as they've landed at their mystery saviors' base after being rescued from the Distna ambush, Mirax is leaping out of her X-wing and racing across the hanger to pull Corran into her arms, kissing him fiercely.

Iella hangs back, trying to steady her own heart. It's not the first time they've come so close to losing him, of course, but it never gets easier – or less terrifying.

And this time. This time, though they still have Corran, they've taken such losses. Asyr, Wes, Slee, and Lyyr... Iella clenches her fists and takes a deep breath, takes a moment to appreciate that she's still alive and not let grief consume her.

They don't know what they've flown into here. They need to have their wits about them as much as they can, and that means her.

Another calming breath, in and out, and Iella looks across the hanger, spots Wedge just climbing down from his ship. He turns, and their gazes meet. Iella takes a step forward, thinking to go speak to him, to see how he's doing. She knows he'll hide his own pain as he works to take care of the rest of them.

But then another man Iella takes for Colonel Vessery, the commander of the two squadrons who had saved them, appears beside him and Wedge turns away.

Later, Iella decides. Later, when they know what they're dealing with, they'll all have time to regroup and deal with their grief. For now, she approaches a knot of her fellow Rogues who look just as lost and hurt. Perhaps she can help them.


End file.
